Chap. 512.—An ACT to provide for the sale of certain waste and
abandoned land in the city of Winchester.

Approved March 18, 1884.

Whereas it has been represented to the general assembly
of Virginia that the taxes on a certain lot in the city of
Winchester, fronting on Kent street, in said city, sixty-six
feet, and running back seventy-nine feet to an alley ten feet
wide, on the west of said lot, and which said vacant lot ad-
joins the property of McCann on the south side, and
lies upon Kent street extended on the north, have not been

paid for many years, and no right or ownership thereto has
een asserted for a great length of time; and whereas it is
asserted that the records of the courts of Winchester and
Frederick county afford no certain information as to the title
or ownership of said lot of land, and it is probable that the
same belongs to the literary fund, as waste and abandoned
land; therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the gencral assembly of Virginia, That
it shall be lawful for the corporation court of the city of
Winchester, upon the motion of the attorney for the com-
monwealth for said city, to cause a notice to be inserted in
some newspaper in the city of Winchester, for at least four
weeks, giving a full and exact description of the said pro-
perty, and calling upon all parties in interest to assert their
rights, if any they have, to said property, and upon it ap-
pearing to the said court that the notice has been duly pub-
ished, if no one shall appear or make claim to said property
within thirty days after said notice has been published, or, if
appearing, shall fail to establish any right to the same, the
said court shall cause the said property to be sold by such
person as the said court shall appoint for that purpose, and
upon such terms as the court sball direct.

2. Before any money shall be received by the person so
appointed to make this sale, he sball give bond in a penalty
at least double the value of the property to be sold, with
security, to be approved by the judge of the said court, and
conditioned as the law directs in the ordinary cases of sales
of land by special commissioners. Any sale made under the
provisions of this act shall be subject to the confirmation of
the corporation court of the city of Winchester, as sales of
land are ordinarily confirmed under proceedings in suits in
chancery. Out of the proceeds of the sale, the said court
shall cause the costs of the sale, including a proper allowance
to the clerk and commissioner of sales, and a fee not exceed-
ing twenty-five dollars to the commonwealth’s attorney,
whose duty it is to conduct these proceedings, to be paid, and
the residue the said court shall cause to be paid to the credit
of the literary fund, as provided in section sixty-six of chapter
seventy-eight of the Code of eighteen hundred and seventy-
three.

3. Should any party prove a claim to the property men-
tioned in this act, it shall be the duty of the corporation
court of the city of Winchester to dismiss any proceedings
that may have been commenced. If any sale should not be
confirmed, the said court shall direct a new sale to be made
as soon as possible; but if a sale shall be confirmed, the court
shall direct the proper decree to be made, at the cost of the
fand.

4, Should any person, within three years from the time
the proceeds of the sale made under this act shall have been
paid to the eredit of the literary fund, show right or title to
the property sold, he or they shall be entitled to re-payment
of the same out of the public treasury, upon condition that
he or they shall make a valid and sufficient title and con-
veyance of the property sold to the person purchasing the
same.